Son of the Wild: The Lightning Thief
by Fanguy59
Summary: Forrest is, by all appearances, a normal teenager. His best friends , Percy Jackson and Grover Underwood, all attend Yancy Academy and things are completely normal. Until that fateful trip to the Museum. Upon reaching Camp Half-Blood, many consider him a Son of Demeter. But after Capture the Flag, they are left in shock of his true parentage. And so enters the Son of Pan.
1. Prologue

**Prologue: The Boring Story of Me**

Let's see, where to start about me...

My name is Forrest Shephard, an average twelve-year-old boy from New York City. I currently attend Yancy Academy, my fourth school I've attended. My favorite subject is Biology, although I have no love for dissection, and my least favorite is Math. My mother is Clementine Jones (nee Shephard) and my father is...well, let's just say I've never met him. I have a stepfather, Noah Jones, and two stepsisters: Daisy and Peach. And no, Daisy is not a tomboyish thrillseeker and Peach is not a innocent damsel in distress who has a boyfriend called Mario. Actually, Daisy is the girly girl and Peach is the rough-and-tumble tomboy. Noah is an okay guy. He works as a Vet in Manhattan, so we have quite a few pets. My mom is very sweet, but is prone to getting offended easily and is also a bit overdramatic.

I only have two friends at Yancy, who also happen to be my roommates: Percy Jackson and Grover Underwood. Percy and I swiftly became friends when I helped him with Biology (which he needs quite often), and Grover and I both are part of the Environmental Club.

Percy and I are very close because of our similar pasts; he had been expelled from practically every school he had attended. Strange occurrences seem to follow him everywhere. Like the time when he was being watched on the Kindergarten Playground by a strange cloaked man. Of course, he was sent off by the staff, but no one believed Percy when he told them he saw that the man had one eye. I told him that when I was in 1'st Grade, my class took a field trip to the zoo. We were at the Tiger exhibit when I fell in it trying to get a better look at the cat. Most thought I would be killed by the huge male currently on display, Khan. He was known as a fierce and ferocious animal, especially to people. Khan looked at me, ears down. I thought he was deciding if I looked appetizing to him or not. However, much to my surprise, he simply walked up to me and layed down beside me, much like a dog would. By the time the keepers bounded into the enclosure loaded with tranquilizers, I was scratching Khan's ear, eliciting a purr. The keepers shot him in the rear, and carried me away.

However, as they were doing that, I could've sworn I heard a deep, wizened voice say, "Until we meet again, my lord."

Grover was the one I knew the least about. He didn't like to share too much about his family. He had this weird nervous laugh that sounded strangely similar to a bleating goat. He also had a funny way of walking- like a trot from a horse. He claimed that he had a leg muscle disease that made him walk like that, but I didn't buy it for a second. You should've seen him run when it was Enchilada Day at the Cafeteria. He's also incredibly timid, despite being one of the oldest kids in the 7'th Grade. I figured he had overprotective parents and had been held back several grades. Grover and I are both Vegetarians, which is probably attributed to our love for the environment.

While Grover's personal life was a closed book, Percy didn't have a problem talking about his. His mom, Sally Jackson, was the best woman he had ever known. She was always looking on the bright side of things, which is why both Percy and I wonder why she married Gabe Ugliano. The guy was a drunk, gambling jerk who, as I put it, looked like he was half hippo. (At least Sally didn't change her last name. It would've been kinda weird for such a sweet woman to have Ugliano for a last name.) I had only met them once, when I invited Percy's family over for Christmas Vacation. My family didn't particularly like Gabe either. My sisters are better at making insults than me, so they often call him, 'A pig-headed, perverted, drunk, wasteful piece of rotting garbage that shouldn't even be human!' Needless to say, that put them in Percy's good books.

Luckily for all of us, Gabe wasn't Percy's biological father. He never knew his dad, which made another similar thing between us, along with ADHD and Dyslexia.

Anyway, that was pretty much my life before the day when all the crazy things that happened to me paled in comparison to the event. The day Percy and I killed our Math Teacher that didn't exist.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Our Math Teacher Gives us Hell (Literally)**

Percy, Grover, and I were sitting on a bus, going to a Museum in Manhattan. Mr. Brunner, our awesome Latin Teacher, had scheduled a tour of the Greek Exhibition in said Museum. And of course, Mrs. Dodds, our sadistic Math Teacher from Georgia, was the other chaperone. And, as if fate wanted to throw salt in our wounds, Nancy Bobofit, the red-headed bully/brat was on the trip as well. The moment we met Mrs. Dodds, she proclaimed Nancy an angel from Heaven with me and Percy as hellspawn. Another reason I hate math.

Nancy was throwing pieces of her lunch at Grover. Out of all of us, Grover was the easiest to pick on. He never did anything to stop it, which left Percy to try to teach the bullies a lesson with me to keep Percy from doing so and futilely try to get Grover to stand up for himself.

A peanut butter and ketchup sandwich (geez, who eats that kind of stuff?) was socked onto the back of Grover's head. And naturally, Mrs. Dodds was conveniently on her phone.

"Seriously, man. You've gotta do something to stop this," I said, earning an ashamed look from Grover, "It'll just keep getting worse."

I noticed Percy standing up, and I immediately knew what was coming next. Mrs. Dodds, of course, was no longer on her phone and zeroed in on Percy like a sniper.

"Perce, you're already on probation. Don't make things worse," I said, yanking him back down into his seat.

"Aw, come on. You know she deserves it," Percy glared at Nancy, who was unsuccessfully playing dumb.

"I know she does, but that doesn't mean you're going to be serving detention with Mrs. Demon over there."

By the time we got to the museum, Grover already had a bottle's worth of ketchup, a thousand flecks of peanut butter, and three carrots stuck in his hair.

"I hope the red-headed brat has more of that ammunition leftover," I grinned at my friend's shocked expressions, "Cause I wanna shove it down her throat. Save the locals from being robbed for food," my friends sprouted grins equally as wide as mine, but I still had more gas in the tank, "It would also be doing the world a favor by ridding it of a future raider of grocery stores and leading activist for American Dictatorship," at this point, we all burst out laughing.

"Boys," Mr. Brunner called out to us from his wheelchair, a stern expression on his face.

Crap. I had completely not noticed we were on the tour. Judging by my friends' expressions, they had too.

"Would you three be kind enough to explain what this is an engraving of?"

We reluctantly walked to it, ignoring Nancy's snickers & Mrs. Dodds' scathing glare.

"Um, that's Kronos, right?" Percy said, pointing to the man with the gaping mouth.

I heard Grover give a small whimper, but I put it to the back of my mind. He whimpers all the time.

"And the other five," I said, pointing to the engravings of five infants falling in the direction of Kronos' mouth, "Those are five of the original six gods: Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, and Hera. They're being eaten by Kronos."

"And can one of you tell me why he did this?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Well, Kronos was the King Titan and there was a prophecy that one of his kids would overthrow him. So he ate them," Grover explained, earning looks of shock from Percy & I. Since when was Grover an expert in Greek Mythology? "One of them, Zeus, escaped, grew up, returned to free his siblings, and took over Kronos' Throne."

Wow. I didn't know Grover took Latin.

"And how in the world are we going to use this in real life?" Nancy muttered to her posse, "Like they're going to ask in a job interview, 'Why did Kronos eat his kids?'"

"And to paraphrase Ms. Bobofit's excellent question, Mr. Jackson, how would we use this in real life?" Mr. Brunner asked Percy.

"Busted," I snickered.

"Shut up!" Nancy hissed, her face redder than her hair.

Everyone stared at Percy, waiting for his answer. The suspense and his struggling was killing me.

"...I don't know sir," he finally said.

If this was a cartoon, I would've facefaulted. But it wasn't, so I settled for a facepalm, joined by several of my classmates.

Mr. Brunner seemed equally disappointed, "Well, Mr. Jackson, half credit then. On that note, it's time for Lunch. Mrs. Dodds, please escort the class outside."

We started following the still scowling Mrs. Dodds, when Mr. Brunner called out, "Mr. Jackson, please stay here for a moment."

Grover & I reluctantly left Percy and starting heading outside, when the strangest thing happened. I had an intense feeling to go through a set of double doors we passed. Like some unseen force was pulling me inside.

"Hey, Grover," I said.

"Yeah?" he turned to me.

"I'll be outside soon. I gotta use the bathroom," I felt a little bad lying, but I didn't want him calling the insane asylum.

Grover tensed for a moment, then nodded, "I'll see you."

And with that, he left.

I pushed one of the doors open, finding that, luckily, the inside was lighted, revealing a sculpture of some person. I closed the door behind me and got closer to the statue to get a better look at it.

It was about ten feet tall, slightly pudgy, and was holding a walking stick. The strangest part about it, however, was that from the waist down, it looked like it had the hindquarters of some barnyard animal. Maybe a goat? Another weird part about it was that the person had a humongous pair of ram horns on his head.

"Mr. Shepard."

Mr. Brunner practically materialized beside me. I was so dead.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Brunner. I-" he held up a hand to stop me.

"It's quite alright, my boy. Afterall, I came here as well," he stared sadly at the statue.

"So, this is Pan?" I stated more than asked.

"Yes. God of the Wild, Son of Hermes, and Lord of the Satyrs."

"If he was here today, I would feel sorry for him."

Mr. Brunner turned to me, "Why?"

"Well, his wild is vanishing, the animals being used for profit and chemical testing. And people are still pillaging the few spots remaining," I smiled sadly at the teacher, "Humans are really selfish, huh?"

"No more than they can be generous, rude and respectful, loathing and loving. Life is full of opposites. I'm sure Pan would know this."

"You talk as if he were real," I said jokingly.

Mr. Brunner hesitated for a moment, "Your friends are probably worried about you. It would be best to head outside."

As soon as I got outside, I noticed that the weird weather was still continuing. Ever since Christmas, freak thunderstorms and hurricanes have been appearing all over the US, as if the sea and sky were at war with each other. Luckily for now, it was only cloudy.

I sat next to Grover & Percy, who were sitting on a nearby fountain.

"What took you so long?" Percy asked.

"Bathroom," I said.

"Forrest, no one takes that long in the bathroom," he retorted.

I reluctantly filled them in on what really happened.

"So you lied to me," Grover said miserably.

"What was I supposed to say?" I asked rhetorically and then hastily added, "That wouldn't make you call the loony bin?"

As I got out my PB&J, I noticed something very strange. On one of the nearby trees, there were of hundreds of small birds. This is not what was weird. What was weird was that each of them seemed to be staring at me. As if I was the most interesting thing in the world.

"Hey, guys, are you seeing this?" I asked my friends, gesturing to the flock.

Unfortunately, at that moment, Nancy decided to dump the rest of her lunch all over Grover.

She grinned and said, "Oops."

This was where things started getting crazier. I could see Percy getting red in the face and, defying all logic, the water from the fountain rose into the air like a cobra and hurled itself at Nancy, soaking her to the bone.

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, then Nancy screamed at the top of her lungs, "They pushed me!"

Mrs. Dodds appeared on the scene so quick it was liked she teleported. It was official. We were doomed.

Mrs. Dodds glared at us while hugging and reassuring Nancy, who was bawling crocodile tears, when I caught sight of something odd. It seemed that she was trying to look angry at us, but instead looked...triumphant and...confused? What did Mrs. Dodds want?

"Jackson. Shepard. You two will come with me," she said with enough venom to kill a whale.

"Wait!' Grover suddenly leapt to his feet, "It was me! I pushed her!"

What was Grover up to? He was terrified of Mrs. Dodds.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," the Math Teacher replied.

"But-"

"You. Will. Stay. Here."

"Thanks for trying," Percy said.

We turned back to follow Mrs. Dodds, but found she was already at the Museum doors, looking impatient.

If I had known what was about to happen and the consequences of it, I would've grabbed Percy, stuffed us both in a cab, driven straight to my house, and locked us in my room for the rest of our lives. The discipline from the school would've been a day at the spa compared to what was about to happen.

But I was still ignorant. So I made the stupid decision of following Percy and Mrs. Dodds into the museum.

I thought Mrs. Dodds was going to reprimand us in the Museum Lobby, but that apparently wasn't the idea. The moment we closed the door behind us, Mrs. Dodds was tapping her foot by the gift shop. Okay, so she was going to have us buy a T-Shirt for Nancy.

But that didn't seem to be the plan either. We followed her deeper and deeper into the museum. When we finally caught up with Mrs. Dodds, we were in the Greek Exhibit from earlier. We even were right next to the same mural, the one with Kronos eating the gods.

Mrs. Dodds glared at us, making a sound like growling. That set off some alarm bells in my head. Glancing at Percy, I could tell he was feeling nervous as well.

"You have been giving us problems," Mrs. Dodds stated.

Percy, surprisingly, did the smart thing. He said, "Yes, ma'am."

"Did you really think that you could get away with it?" her eyes revealing that she was beyond mad. It was evil.

"I-"

"WE will try better, ma'am," I interrupted Percy.

Sure, it was a little rude. But I wanted to get out of there. The alarm bells in my head started ringing like Notre Dame. And that was before thunder shook the building.

"We are not fools, Forrest Shephard," Mrs. Dodds growled, "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and suffer less pain."

Okay, now things were getting downright terrifying.

I could only think that the school had found out about the injured animals I've been taking care of in my dorm. Or Percy's illegal stash of candy he had been selling. However, neither of those possibilities seemed to be enough to get her so mad. But either way, we were in deep doo-doo.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, I don't…" Percy stammered.

"Your time is up," she hissed.

Then things got so scary I would've crapped in my pants if I'd eaten my Lunch.

Mrs. Dodds eyes began to glow like coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She was anything but human. She was a shriveled hag with bat-like wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs. And she was about to slice Percy and I to ribbons.

"What ho, boys!" Mr. Brunner's voiced called out.

He rolled up in his wheelchair and tossed Percy a pen and me a ring.

We both caught them by instinct just as what used to be Mrs. Dodds lunged at us. In an instant, a bronze sword was in Percy's hands and a dagger of the same material was in mine.

Mrs. Dodds got closer, screeching, "Die!" over and over again.

In my terrified state, I did the only thing I could naturally: I threw the dagger at the hag.

As luck would have it, the knife pierced her in the shoulder and she recoiled in pain. Percy took the incentive and swung at Mrs. Dodds, slashing through her chest like water. _HISSS!_

Mrs. Dodds exploded into yellow dust and vanished, leaving behind nothing but a smell of sulfur and a chill of evil in the air.

Percy and I were now alone.

There was a ring and pen in our hands.

Mr. Brunner wasn't there. There wasn't anyone there but us.

We were still trembling. Our breakfast must've been contaminated with hallucination-inducing pills or something.

"Did that just happen?" Percy managed to say.

I swallowed, "I don't know."

With nothing else to do, we went outside, where it had started to rain & the birds were gone.

Grover was still sitting at the fountain, a museum map tented over his head.

When Nancy saw us, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butts."

"Who?" Percy asked.

"Our _teacher_. Duh!"

What the heck just happened? I asked Nancy what she was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and looked away.

So we turned to the next most readily available (and more reliable) source: Grover.

"Grover, where the heck is Mrs. Dodds?" I asked him.

He hesitated for a second and wouldn't look me in the eye, "Who?"

I knew he was lying. He never was good at it.

"Not funny, man," Percy said, an annoyed look on his face, "Where's Mrs. Dodds?"

Seeing that Grover wasn't as reliable as I thought, Percy & I trudged over to the last witness.

Mr. Brunner looked up at us, looking a little distracted, "Ah, those would be mine. Thank you for finding them, boys."

The pen and ring. I'd forgotten we still had them. We handed the items back to the Latin Teacher.

"Sir, where's Mrs. Dodds?" Percy asked.

Our teacher stared blankly at us, " Who?"

"The other chaperone," I supplied, "Mrs. Dodds from Georgia. The sadistic Pre-Algebra Teacher."

Mr. Brunner frowned and leaned forward, "Boys, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you two feeling alright?"


End file.
